Korneeva, Erika Andreeva and 10 other Russians. Who will pass the AO qualification?

Korneeva, Erika Andreeva and 10 other Russians. Who will pass the AO qualification?

Alexander Nasonov December 22, 2023, 15:30 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.

TBS champions Dominic Thiem and Emma Raducanu will also compete for the right to enter the main draw of the first major of the season.

The Australian Open will be held in Melbourne from January 14 to 28, 2024. As usual, this will be the first major of the season. Who has already reached the main draw of the Australian Open, either as a seed or as a seed, became known a little earlier in December. Read more about this in the “Championship”.

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And on Friday, December 22, the AO press service published the official list of participants in the qualifying tournament. Qualifying will take place in the week beginning January 8, which is one week before the start of the main draw. To get through this path, you will need to win three matches. And in total there will be 32 lucky ones: 16 in men’s singles and the same number in women’s singles.

Which Russian qualified?

Let’s start with our men. In fact, the only Russian representative of the stronger sex in the AO-2024 ranking is 27-year-old Ivan Gakhov, number 180 in the world. He rarely appears in the main draws of ATP tournaments. Gakhov has only one win and two losses in the last two seasons. But at the level of challengers, the Russian has two titles and won on clay in Girona and Troisdorf in 2023.

Furthermore, in one of his “big” matches of 2023, Gakhov played with Novak Djokovic himself. Ivan lost, but Novak had a hard time!

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Also striking is the presence of the 2020 US Open champion and former world number three Dominic Thiem in the rankings. The Austrian tennis player, ranked 98th in the ATP ranking, was just one place away from qualifying directly for the AO main draw. And now he will have to win three games to do so. Throughout the 2023 season, Tim was on the verge of the top 100, then fell out of it, and then returned again. He even reached a final, but lost in the decisive match of his country’s tournament in Kitzbühel.

There are other interesting names in the AO men’s rankings: for example, David Goffin and Diego Schwartzman. They were once in the top 8 of the ATP rankings, but now they are not even in the top 100. Also not to be missed is the presence of 20-year-old Hamad Medjedovic, a rising star of Serbian tennis. At the end of the 2023 season, Medjedovic, now world number 113, won the ATP Junior Final. So far, this is the main success of his career, although no rating points are awarded for this tournament. And Novak Djokovic helps Hamad on his way to the top.

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But for Russian fans it will be much more interesting to follow the women’s qualification grid for AO-2024, because there will be 11 of us at once! To begin with, let’s just list them (place in parentheses in the WTA ranking): Kamilla Rakhimova (99), Erika Andreeva (112), Maria Timofeeva (141), Valeria Savinykh (144), Anastasia Tikhonova (158), Alina Korneeva (175) , Polina Kudermetova (183), Ekaterina Makarova (186), Anastasia Zakharova (192), Sofia Lansere (202) and Daria Astakhova (203).

Kamila Rakhimova

Photo: Getty Images

Rakhimov will lead the qualification for the tournament. She, like her fellow sufferer Dominic Thiem, was just one spot away from breaking into the main draw. In 2023, the 22-year-old Russian first reached the main draw of the Australian Open, where she lost in the first round. And she showed her best result at the Roland Garros Slams, where she reached the third round, thus repeating the achievement of the US Open 2021.

It will also be interesting to see what Korneeva, 16, and Andreeva, 19, can achieve. Alina won two junior Grand Slam tournaments in 2023 and overall became the strongest junior in the world. It is logical that now the athlete tries to continue her progress at the adult level. Well, Erica is trying to keep up with her younger sister Mirra, who at 16 is already so popular that she gets invited to exhibition tournaments.

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However, the biggest name in the women’s AO rankings is Emma Raducanu. The 21-year-old Briton, who played little in 2023 due to injuries, is only ranked 299th in the WTA rankings and was therefore not even qualified overall, but with a protected ranking. Of course, it’s hard to expect Raducanu to be able to do what she did at the 2021 US Open: win the tournament as a qualifier. But if she doesn’t dream about it, why act?

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Well, one cannot help but notice the presence in the rankings of the Italian Sara Errani, 36 years old, and the French Alize Cornet, 33, who are outside the top hundred of the WTA ranking. Errani is a 2012 Roland Garros finalist and former world number five. And in doubles she has a career “Slam”! So she’ll probably get the lion’s share of attention from her.

And Cornet, former world number 11, reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2022. And so far this is his best result in the Helmets. Plus, Alize will try to continue her incredible streak. Not a single TBS has been missed since AO-2007!